


The Gift Of Colours

by afteriwake



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Anxious Sherlock Holmes, Colored Contact Lenses, Colors, Eavesdropping, Eventual Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper, Eye Color, F/M, First Conversation, First Meetings, Gifts For Sherlock Holmes, Graceful Exit, Handshake, Happy Molly Hooper, Happy Sherlock Holmes, Molly's First Day, Mystery Woman - Freeform, Nervous Sherlock, Not letting go, POV Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper Fluff, Sherlock Knows, introductions, returning the favor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 17:10:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16201970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: Years ago, his soulmate found a way around the "your soulmate only sees the colour of your eyes" stipulation by wearing various pairs of coloured contact lenses, and he returned the favour, clinging to the fact someone cared enough to give him the gift of colour during the worst times of his life. Years later he hears the story of it from the mouth of his soulmate...but it's still not time for them to properly meet, not yet.





	The Gift Of Colours

**Author's Note:**

  * For [theconsultingstrangevidder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theconsultingstrangevidder/gifts).



> Ages ago **theconsultingstrangevidder** asked for a soulmate!AU Sherlolly fic " _where you can see the world only in the color that you soulmate's eyes are but your soulmate wears colored eye contact lenses every once in a while so you can see all the colors already until you meet_ ," and I finally got around to writing it towards my milestone goal, making it it's own milestone (my 1,125th Sherlock-centric fic here on AO3). Enjoy!

He wondered what it was like to only see the world in one colour. He certainly hadn’t, not since he was a teenager; he’d managed to see the world in every colour imaginable, mostly, but he had felt no stirrings that he had met his soulmate, not that he actually believed he _would_. His brother hadn’t, and Mycroft was at least outwardly more of a catch than he was. But for years his vision would change colours from time to time and then it would stay. By the time he was in his twenties about the only colour he couldn’t see was pink.

It took him some time to realize his soulmate must have been wearing coloured contacts. That was the only logical explanation, he realized as he saw people in uni with them. She (or he, that couldn’t be discounted) would never see the colours themselves unless _he_ wore them as well, and…

Well, why not? He could see them in the mirror and it would give him a break from the stares about his heterochromatic eyes and how didn’t he have a lucky mate who could see all those lovely shades? No, _he_ was the lucky one, though his soul mate never knew.

Within a year he had cycled through most colours, even pink, and left it at that. Should they never meet he had returned the favour done to him and his business as a consulting detective. Of course, that was before the issues with drugs and all that time spent looking at the world in colour when part of him was reminded someone had cared enough to give him the gift of colour. That was the sole thought that kept him from going mad in rehab: someone he had never met loved him.

Best not to let the gift go to waste.

****

\---

“I used to wear coloured contacts as a teenager because my dad thought it would be a good gift to my soulmate. Then a little while later, he or she did the same for me.”

The snippet of conversation pulled him out of his quest to go get a cup of damnable coffee from the canteen and head back to his lab to get to work. His ears nearly perked up as he tried to find the source of the feminine voice who had spoken. When his eyes zeroed in on the brunette woman in the lab coat, he watched as the jumper she wore underneath exploded in pink.

His soulmate was at Barts? He didn’t recognize the woman but before he could speak to her she gathered up her things and dashed off. Damn it all, the one time the canteen with the abominable coffee and subpar food was busy, it would have to be the day he found her. But he knew she worked here at the hospital he did his work at.

It was a start.

****

\---

It was as though she was there one minute and the next she was gone, but at least he had a name: Margaret Hooper. She went by Molly. She was there to work in the pathology department in furtherance of her career to become a consultant. Surgeon in the orthopaedic department usually. 

And she hadn’t actually been set to start work for another three weeks while she got her affairs in order. The day he had seen her was her day of having the tour of the facilities. She hadn’t started at her post that day.

He wondered if he should get her personal information from his brother, who was now disgustingly happy with Lestrade as his soulmate, to give him her information. But then he wondered how that would come across to the woman who had given him the gift of colour all those years ago. Would it seem stalkerish, turn her away from him before they really got to know each other? Normally, he wouldn’t mind such gestures but then, he was an interesting, weird and unique sort of man. Considerateness was not something he put much stock in, but just this once he let his less frenzied thoughts prevail and decided to wait.

He even waited a few hours until after she had started her first shift on her first day. He made his way to the lift from the lab he used, took it to the basement and then went to the morgue. His hand was shaking like it had when he had needed a fix in his youth but it was pure nervousness this time, he knew that. He wondered if she would know when she saw him what they were destined to be.

Stamford was speaking with her when he went in and both heads turned at his arrival. “Ah! This is the infamous Sherlock Holmes, who haunts one of the upstairs labs and works for Scotland Yard. Feel free to give him body parts from the John and Jane Does, though not too many. He can’t have a monopoly on them for his research.”

Her eyes had gone wide upon seeing him so he knew she knew, but she swallowed and gave Stamford a bright smile. “I’ll remember that,” she said before turning to Sherlock. “I’m Molly Hooper.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” he murmured, taking the hand she offered and not letting go.

Stamford looked from one to the other as it finally registered. “Are you two…?”

“Soulmates? Yes,” Sherlock said. “I’ve known for a few weeks now.”

“Good for you!” Stamford said. “I think you’ll get on well. I’ll just...leave you to it.” He nodded to the two of them and only when he left did they let go of each other's hand.

“You’ve known for weeks?” Molly asked curiously.

“Your first visit to Barts, to get the tour...I saw you in the canteen. I just didn’t know how to approach you,” he said, an unfamiliar nervousness settling on him. “I...herad you tell about the contacts.”

“Oh!” she said, surprised. “Yes. Someone was asking how I saw more than one colour without having met my soulmate. I could already see a few shades when I was young, blues and greens and different types of grey than most people, but then a few years ago I started to see every colour. Thank you for that.”

“You did it first,” he said.

“Yes, but you must have only seen brown for so long, it had to have been dreadful.”

“It’s a pretty shade of brown,” he said.

She chuckled softly. “I have a full day ahead of me but...perhaps dinner tonight? If you’re willing?”

“I know a great Italian place,” he said beginning to relax.

“Wonderful. Meet me here at half past five and I’ll be ready.” Her smile widened. “It really is a pleasure to meet you, Sherlock.”

“Thank you...Molly,” he said, returning her smile. This could turn out to have been the best approach after all...


End file.
